Let Come What May
by Phantom Rosabelle
Summary: PRiS. Preseries. The last hours before KO-35 fell to Dark Spectre.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** The Power Rangers are not mine.

**Author's Note:** So, yes. Starting a new series is probably the last thing that I should be doing at the moment, but this one wouldn't leave me alone. This story is a short prologue type of thing, five or six chapters at the most. It can be read as a standalone, but the storyline will continue through what at the moment is looking like four fics, though that number will probably change between now and whenever.

Much angsting in future chapters, but this _is_ the last day before KO-35 falls to Dark Spectre, so what do you expect? I can't think of anything that I'd need to slap a warning onto this fic for, so enjoy! And please, review to tell me what you think.

**Chapter 1**

Zhane was the one person on the planet who could maintain some semblance of dignity while wearing fuzzy slippers, let alone pink fuzzy slippers. Pink and white fuzzy _bunny_ slippers. Torin had presented him with the slippers as a joke a year ago, and on the nights that they spent up here, Andros had never seen the Silver Ranger without them.

Yawning, the Red Ranger rolled onto his back and gazed up into the paling sky. He watched the gray clouds roll in for awhile, then his gaze slid back and forth between Zoie's hair and Zhane's slippers. He smiled a little as he lay in between them; of everyone, the five people here he loved above all others.

Andros shifted back onto his side, propping himself up on one elbow to see over Zoie's shoulder. The Pink Ranger lay curled up in Keelan's arms, and Andros felt a momentary stab of envy at the obvious closeness between them. Behind them, Tor and Emi were in each other's arms as well, and he couldn't help smiling now.

His eyes drifted back to Zoie. Her blond hair had tangled messily in her sleep, hiding features only slightly more delicate than her brother's. Andros edged a little closer to her, laying down again to rest his head against the back of her neck.

Only now did the worry come creeping back. Three massive quantron attacks in two days, with a monster or two thrown in just for fun. Whatever Dark Spectre was up to... Andros wasn't sure how much longer KO-35 could hold without reinforcements, and Eltare was otherwise occupied.

He let out a quiet sigh, careful not to disturb his still sleeping teammates. The gods knew they deserved their rest. Andros probably should be asleep with them, but he'd been jerked out of a restless doze hours before by the familiar cold of dread. He hadn't been able to close his eyes since.

KO-35 was a small colony; two thousand at its best, mostly families. Many had fled back to Eltare or Aquitar, or wherever they had come from. Many more were preparing to. As more and more of their people lost faith, Andros wanted less and less to fight a war he couldn't win.

He knew too well what it would cost. The first major effort Dark Spectre had made to take KO-35 had been seven years before. The fledgling colony had just barely survived, and the last waves of that attack had left him an orphan.

Three years ago, Dark Spectre had tried again. This time, Andros had been lucky. His teammates hadn't been. Zhane and Zoie were the only ones to have both parents live through those two weeks, but they had lost a baby brother who had just taken his first steps. Keelan and Emi were like himself, no family to speak of, and countless friends gone for all of them.

It made his stomach churn to envision the cost a third resistance would demand. In his heart, Andros knew that it would never happen. His people were sick and tired of burying their loved ones, and the colony would sooner be abandoned than they go through that again.

He tried not to imagine it, but couldn't seem not to. Andros wondered briefly what he would do then before smiling ruefully. He'd begun his training two weeks after his parents died, and the Rangerdome had been his home since--but Ayla and Cahir had dragged him to their own home often enough.

They could never replace his own parents, and he was unspeakably grateful that they had never tried. They had simply welcomed him into their lives without question and whenever Andros couldn't stand being alone any longer, he had only to follow Zhane and Zoie home. He knew they would be more than willing to let him stay with them.

Andros let out another sigh and tried to relax. It would be at least another hour before anyone else woke, and while he could have crawled out from under the blankets, the comfort he found in having someone there to curl up against was one thing he wouldn't trade for the world. He knew that the rest of them felt the same, and it was the reason why they spent every night following a battle with each other.

"Hey," someone hissed in his ear, and Andros looked over his shoulder in annoyance when he felt a hard yank on his ponytail.

"What?" he demanded, more irritably then he'd intended.

Zhane glowered at him. "Will you stop smelling my sister's hair?"

"I--" Andros felt warmth rush through his cheeks and couldn't understand why. "I wasn't..."

"You're blushing," Zhane smirked, and his glare faded into a grin. "She's too old for you."

"You tried to seduce the Eltaran ambassador's wife," Andros retorted, fighting hard to keep his flush from deepening. It was useless. "She was ten years older than you."

"Wanted to, not tried. You and Emi dragged me away before I could seduce anyone," Zhane complained. "You know, I'll remember this when _you_ want to steal some important diplomat's girlfriend."

"Fair enough," Andros agreed, eager to change the subject. "But it's not something I plan to make a habit of."

"And that's your problem," Zhane said cheerfully. "You're hopeless."

Andros smiled. "Thanks."

"It's not a compliment."

"I know."

* * *

"Hmm." Ecliptor made a quiet, noncommital noise. The datapad in his hand blipped just as quietly, and his never-blinking eyes strayed towards the bed not so far from where he stood. Unlike himself, she required sleep. 

He glanced towards the datapad once again, tapping the screen idly. One set of diagrams instantly became another, and he studied these as closely as the last. It seemed that there was a design flaw in the Karovans atmospheric fighters. A simple recalibration of a Velocifighter's lasers would blast through their armor in less than a second.

He gave the order for the modification and set down the datapad. Astronema slept on, unaware. Dark Spectre had commanded that they make no move to invade until reinforcements had arrived. Twice before he had nearly taken the troublesome little colony, only to lose his hold when their fighters outnumbered his. Those reinforcements would soon be coming, and it was his princess that would lead them to victory. He would see to that.

* * *

Arran. Zhane scrunched up his nose in concentration as he contemplated his slippers. The left one should be Arran. The right one was definitely a female, and it took him much longer to settle on a name. Finally he decided to go with Amynta, mostly because Andros was eavesdropping on his thoughts and couldn't hold back his laughter any longer. 

"You're going to wake them up, you know," he muttered.

Andros propped himself up on one elbow, staring down at him incredulously. "They're sleeping?"

"Not them, you idiot." He jerked his head towards the rest of their teammates. "_Them._"

Andros shrugged. "I'm not the one naming my slippers."

Zhane shot him a sideways look. "At least I didn't name my toothbrush holder."

"That was five years ago," the Red Ranger said defensively. "And it talked."

He just shook his head. "Whatever you say, Dros."

"Will you two shut it?" Torin complained, from the other end. "Some of us are trying to sleep."

"But not all of us." Nohemi giggled, and sat up to stretch her arms.

"And some of us can sleep through a firefight," Zoie chimed in. Zhane saw her poke a finger into Keelan's chest and grinned at the look on Andros's face when he saw it too.

"I'm hungry," Andros announced to no one in particular. "If we don't eat now, we never will."

"Yeah, it's almost like Astronema doesn't care about our personal lives." Emi rolled her eyes with a grin. "Oh, and if you just jinxed us, I'll kill you."

"Me? What did I do?"

Zhane shook his head and sat up, carefully kicking off Arran and Amynta. "Race you to breakfast?"

* * *

She had to admit that Andros was better at acting like he wasn't staring at her. Zoie stirred some more brown sugar into her oatmeal and pretended not to watch Keelan watch her. She was surprised he wasn't spilling food all over himself. 

"Keelan, have you talked to the soldiers yet?" Torin wanted to know, breaking the easy silence, and the three of them stopped daydreaming.

The Blue Ranger nodded his head with a sigh. "I'll do it again, but it won't do much good," he warned. "They've lost all hope that we can win."

Emi shook her head in disgust. "Then they should leave and let us do the same," she said angrily. "I'm tired of being expected to risk my life saving them. The civilians are one thing, but the army should take care of itself."

"We're Rangers," Andros said sharply, finally looking at someone other than her. "We fight for our people. No matter what the circumstances."

"They're _trained soldiers,_" Emi reminded him, equally harsh. "They're not supposed to quit just because they're discouraged!"

"And they're not being allowed to." Andros stared down at his plate, his expression blank. "It's only a few that have defected."

"And a few more tomorrow," she said bitterly. "You know we need them."

"I know," Andros said softly. "I didn't mean... I'm scared too," he admitted, and Zoie flicked a spoonful of sugar at him.

"You're not allowed to be scared," she reminded him with a small smile. "The Red Ranger is supposed be a fearless, perfect warrior."

"And you'd better be twice as fearless to make up for all your imperfections," Zhane added, ducking automatically, though it wasn't really necessary. Andros's toast missed him by a mile.

"See?" he crowed. "There's one right there!"

"Watch where you're throwing the food," Torin complained. "I don't want to have to wash this shirt again for at least three weeks."

"Days," Emi corrected. "Three _days._"

"Yeah," he agreed easily. "That."

Zoie laughed, and Zhane elbowed Andros in the ribs. Andros showed no hesitation in shoving him back, hard, pushing him off of his stool. Zhane stumbled into Keelan, and that was it. Emi tackled Andros from behind as he turned to watch Zhane lose an impromptu wrestling match to Keelan, propelling both of them into the fray as it quickly escalated into an all-out war.

She laughed again, but her smile faded as Tor's eyes met hers. He didn't say a word and neither did she, and for the next few minutes everyone could pretend that they weren't losing a war.

* * *

"Andros!" Ayla beamed at him as she swept him into her arms, hugging him tight before she stepped back to look at him. "You have your mother's eyes," she murmured with a sad smile. "You know how proud your parents would be of you." 

"I know," Andros sighed, trying hard to smile for her. He loved her, but she had a way of making the scared little boy buried deep inside scream for his own mother.

She tucked a few strands of wayward hair behind her ear and shook her head. "I want to talk to you later," she told him. "I'm worried about you."

Andros managed a smile this time. "You always are."

Ayla just laughed and hugged him another time. "Would you watch Roisin for me?" she asked, gesturing towards her daughter's carrier. "She's asleep now but she won't be for long on the other side of the yard."

He followed her gaze to Zhane and Keelan sparring against Torin and Zoie, Emi alternately cheering them on and working her way through her katas. Cahir leaned back against the high fence the marked off the Rangers' training yard, arms crossed as he watched his children.

"Sure." Andros nodded, and Ayla left to join her husband.

He sighed and sat down on the bench that stretched along one wall. Roisin was fast asleep and he smiled slightly. She was a sweet little girl, with her mother's blue eyes and her father's white-blond hair. Like her siblings, she looked a perfect blend between both her parents. Unlike himself, who fortunately only took after his mother...

Against his will, Andros remembered another blond little girl, long gone now. Nine years, he thought with a guilty pang, his locket weighing heavily on his heart. Nine years without so much as a trace of his twin sister.

He shivered suddenly and zipped up his sweatshirt. Shoving his hands into the pockets, he leaned back against the cold wall and let out a deep breath. Even now he remembered clearly how he had run screaming into his father's arms, crying that Karone was gone. He couldn't forget the terrible look on his father's face that day, and Andros knew it would haunt him each day of the rest of his life.

Andros scrubbed his face with one sleeve, his throat aching badly as he swallowed his tears. There was no point in crying, he reminded himself sternly. It hadn't brought Karone back, it hadn't brought his parents back, and it certainly hadn't made him feel any better.

He still wondered how his parents hadn't blamed him. _"Take care of Karone,"_ his father had always told him. _"Watch out for your sister."_ He had tried so, so hard to do as they'd asked, but it hadn't been enough. She'd been snatched from right under his nose and he hadn't done a thing to save her.

Andros let out a deep, careful breath as he reached beneath his shirt. The locket hung there as it always did, the metal warm from resting against his skin. He clutched it in his fist for a few moments before he opened it, wanting to cry all over again as the two familiar faces stared up at him. Two perfect pictures of childish innocence. Sometimes he had trouble believing that only a month later, she would be gone.

He gazed down at the little boy he hardly remembered being, his frown deepening as his eyes flickered towards a still-dozing Roisin. Strange that it should bother him only now how little resemblance there was between himself and Karone.

Her fair coloring had come from her father, her delicate build from their mother. That always brought a small smile to his face. Though it troubled him how faintly he could remember his mother's face without the aid of a photograph, Andros would never have described her as delicate. Slight of frame, maybe, but certainly not weak or frail.

His parents had been too strong to die the way they had, defenseless and without the chance to fight back. They'd been gone before the rubble of what had once been their home had settled, and Andros bit his lip at the memory. He ran his thumb along the edge of the small silver disc that held the few clues of Karone's disappearance before he tucked it safely inside his locket once again. As Ayla had helped him scatter their ashes into the wind, he'd sworn to himself that he would find his sister for them.

He'd sworn that Karone would someday know how much she was loved, how not a day had gone by that their parents didn't think of her. Some days, the only reason he had to keep fighting was not to break that promise. It was enough, and Andros slipped the locket beneath his sweatshirt as he stood.

Keeping one eye on Roisin, he slowly began the routine he had perfected over the last seven years. The moves flowed through him, easy and familiar. The only way he was ever going to find his sister was to keep fighting, and he would go to his last breath to bring her home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** Still not mine.

**Chapter 2**

Andros pulled on a clean shirt, slipping his arms into his jacket sleeves with a sigh. As always, the workout had restored his focus, and the warm water of his shower had calmed him the rest of the way. He headed towards the control room, where he suspected he would find at least some of his teammates.

He turned the corner and ran straight into Zoie. He caught himself on the wall, but when she stormed off without so much as a backwards glance towards him, he hurried to catch up with her. She resisted his hand on her arm but didn't struggle when he turned her to face him, her shoulders slumping as tears trickled down her cheeks.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently, hands still on her shoulders. "Zoie?"

She let out a shaky breath and swiped at her eyes. "I'm fine," she attempted to convince him. "It's nothing, really."

Andros sighed, drawing her into a loose hug. "Do you want me to find Keelan for you?"

"No," she whispered, tucking her head beneath his chin. "No, I'll be okay in a minute."

"What's wrong?" It occured to him then that maybe he shouldn't have asked, but she only sighed and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"My parents," she whispered. "They won't evacuate."

"Oh." He didn't know what else to say, but it turned out he didn't need to say anything at all. Zoie just held onto him, and he lifted one hand to stroke her hair gently.

"They say that they won't leave us behind," she continued. "I--I don't want them to stay for me. I don't want them to die."

"I know." He just held her then, and she leaned against him until her shoulders ceased trembling.

"It'll be just like it was with Brenn all over again," she whispered. "I can't do that again, not with my parents. Not with Roisin..."

"Your parents would never risk Roisin's life," he told her firmly. He was certain of that, and he hoped it showed in his voice. "You aren't going to lose your sister."

"Yeah," she whispered. "Yeah, you're right."

She didn't believe him. Andros couldn't blame her for that, and he let out a quiet sigh. He wished he knew better how to comfort her, to do something besides hold her and lamely try to convince her that everything would be all right when they both knew that it wouldn't be.

"I should go," she sighed a moment later, loosening her arms from around him. "So much to do..."

"Yeah," he agreed, shifting from foot to foot awkwardly as she scrubbed her cheeks dry with her shirtsleeves. "I should probably... did Keelan leave yet?"

"Torin went with him." Zoie nodded, and sighed. "They'll do what they can. Emi and Zhane went out on patrol. I was going to do whatever I could around here before I went to join them."

"Go on now if you want," he told her. "I'll take care of anything that needs to be done here."

"Thanks." She smiled at him, wrapping her arms around him again in a tight hug. "And thanks," she added softly. "I love you."

Andros closed his eyes and held her, swallowing back the lump in his throat. He couldn't bring himself to answer her--it felt like too much of a goodbye. That he was saying it now because he knew that he wouldn't have another chance later.

"I should get going," Zoie said finally, and released him. She kissed his cheek and triggered her morpher, pale pink sparkles surrounding her as she teleported herself out.

Andros felt a slight smile form on his face as he stared at the spot where she had been a moment ago. He shook himself and sighed, thinking that there had to be something around here that needed to be done.

* * *

"No, I haven't seen a thing," Zhane reported for the fifth time. "I'm telling you, they're all waiting for us up there." 

"Their ships are up there," Emi reminded him impatiently. "We don't know were _they_ are. Keep looking."

He clicked off his communicator without a word, and leaned back against the nearest building with a sigh. There were so few people on the streets that anyone who wasn't Karovan would be impossible to miss.

His eyes swept across the few blocks that he could see, landing on the tall, ornate building across the street. There had been a conference there just three month ago, he remembered. Of course he'd had to put up with Andros mentally ordering him to pay attention every two minutes, but he'd been sitting between the two of the three female Eltaran Rangers, and also across from the female ambassador from... somewhere.

That had made the otherwise deathly dull meeting somewhat bearable. Personally, he also thought it would have gone much better if someone had actually taken the time to listen when Andros had said that KO-35 was hardly able to hold on in the event of a full-fledged invasion, but his concerns had been brushed off repeatedly.

Zhane ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Andros had been rather generous with his choice of words, actually--he had quite calmly reasoned that Eltare was safe and well-defended several galaxies away, and they had a few hundred troops to share. Less, if other planets agreed to lend aid. The White Eltaran Ranger had agreed; the Eltaran ambassador had reminded her that she needed Council approval before committing to such a decision.

Andros had politely excused himself from the room then, and Zhane had found him an hour later standing stiffly on the balcony overlooking the city. They'd both known then that it was hopeless.

Yet he was still here, preparing to fight... Zhane shook his head with a sigh. He didn't like to think about that too much. Besides, he'd probably spend all this time worrying about dying and then die and see that it wasn't so bad. Haunting people did sound like an intriguing possibility, except that the person he'd most enjoy tormenting for all eternity was probably the last person in the universe that he should. Mostly because Andros would take great pleasure in revenge once that annoyingly thick skull of his finally took a hard enough blow.

Movement caught his eye and he remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Ducking behind the cover of the building, he peered around the corner and narrowed his eyes at the young blond woman wandering down the street. He stiffened as he watched her and let one hand drift towards his Digimorpher; he'd never seen her before and there weren't so many people on KO-35 that he couldn't recognize them all.

He straightened up and took a few steps towards her. She whirled around before he'd gotten too close, and fell automatically into a fighting stance. Zhane raised an eyebrow, her possible identities narrowing drastically.

"Didn't mean to scare you," he said lightly, taking a slow step backwards. "I'm Zhane."

She didn't answer. After a moment, she smiled slightly, tucking a short strand of blond hair behind her ear. She had a nice smile, Zhane noticed almost dreamily. And perfect white teeth, and nice eyes... Not to mention she looked really good in leather. He was too busy examining her physical assets to notice the staff in her hand until too late, and he jumped away from her in surprise.

"I thought it was you," he sighed. "Where's your army?"

She smirked in reply. "I don't need an army," she replied, looking him up and down with a haughty gleam in her eyes. "You wouldn't last a minute against me."

"You think so?" Inwardly, he recognized that she was probably right. He'd be damned before he let her know it.

Astronema tossed her hair and aimed her staff squarely at his chest. "We can always find out."

"Let's, then." He flashed her a cheeky grin. "You know, has anyone ever told you that you're too pretty to be evil?"

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "What game are you playing?"

"No, no, I'm serious," he insisted. He supposed he should feel a little bit badly about that, but he really wasn't lying. "You've got really beautiful eyes."

A guarded smile touched her face. "Well, of course I do."

"Of course," Zhane agreed hastily, breathing out silently in relief. "Your nose is cute, too."

Her smile widened. "You're not so bad yourself," she remarked, regret touching her expression. "But you're still not getting away without a fight."

_Damn._ Zhane heaved a weary sigh, and reached for his morpher. "Let's rocket!"

* * *

"Good day, sir." Keelan saluted respectfully as Kinwon strode past them into the army base. 

Torin echoed the motion half-heartedly at best, sighing when the commander paid them no notice. "Maybe Emi was right."

He kicked a stray stone out of his path, watching it bounce away down the stone steps. It rolled ahead of them to the Ranger-marked hover, coming to a stop just in front of the driver's door. The Black Ranger nudged it again with one toe as he unlocked the hover and opened the door, waiting wordlessly for a response.

Keelan was silent as they climbed in. "How so?" he inquired carefully, and Torin knew that he'd understood perfectly.

"Do you honestly believe that we can win this?"

"Does anyone?" Keelan retorted dryly, his shoulder slumping in a sigh. "We both know the answer to that. It won't matter much what we do."

"Then why do we stay?" Torin clenched his hands around the steering wheel, deliberately not looking at the Blue Ranger.

"Andros stays because it's what he said he'd do," Keelan answered immediately. "That kid is too responsible. Zhane because Andros does. Zoie... because of her family, I guess. I don't know about Emi."

"And the two of us?"

"Zoie," Keelan replied after a brief pause. His eyes slid towards Torin, fixing him in his piercing gaze. "Why do _you_ stay, Tor?"

"Because..." He stared out at the road for several minutes, his fingers idly drumming on the steering wheel. "Well, because..." He couldn't bring himself to finish.

"Because it'd look really bad if you ran and the rest of us didn't." Keelan completed the statement for him, his tone empty. "That's it, isn't it."

He didn't deny it.

"Tor..." Keelan laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "We're with you."

"Dammit, Keelan, I can't do this," he muttered, closing his eyes for a moment. He opened them before he could steer the hover into a pole and let out a sigh. "I don't want to die."

"I know." Keelan let out a deep breath. "None of us do."

Torin glanced at him, but Keelan didn't continue. He didn't know quite what to say, and so he said nothing. A tense silence fill the hover the rest of the way home.

* * *

"Hey." Zhane's voice echoed in the empty corridor of the Astro Megaship, and Andros paused to let his friend catch up. 

"How'd you know I'd be here?" he asked, eyes fixed on the deck.

"I didn't." Zhane shot him an annoyed glance. "Do you have any idea how hard you are to track down?"

The attempt at lightheartedness failed, and Andros didn't smile. "You know why I'm here."

"Yeah," Zhane said softly. "I think I do."

"The Megaship is the best that we have," he muttered. "But even she won't last long."

"I beg to differ," the miffed voice of their AI broke in. "The Astro Megaship was designed to survive heavy fire while sustaining minimal damages."

Oddly, that brought a faint smile to his face. "We know, Deca," Andros said quietly. "But an entire army?"

She was silent for a moment. "It can be done," she said finally, reluctantly adding, "Though it is unlikely."

"Exactly." Andros scuffed one boot along the rough metal deck, and sighed. "Are the evacuations still in progress?"

Zhane nodded his head slowly. "Most are already gone. It's just us and the soldiers now."

"And your parents," Andros added tentatively, watching for his friend's reaction.

The Silver Ranger blew out his breath in a sigh. "You're not very tactful, you know that?"

"Sorry," he murmured.

"It's all right." Zhane kicked at the floor absently. "Yes, my parents are staying and no, I'm not happy with it. That what you wanted to hear?"

"No..." Andros muttered. "I talked to Zoie, is all."

"Oh." Zhane ran a hand through his hair. "She took it pretty hard when my father told us. I tried to talk to them, but..."

His voice trailed off, and Andros finished for him. "They don't want to leave you."

"Yeah." Zhane ran a hand across his face. "I think it was my mother's idea. When Brenn died, she just... She can't do that again."

"I remember." Andros sighed as they rounded the corner leading towards the Bridge. "You know I love her too... I feel like I owe your family my life," he confessed in a soft whisper. "After my parents died, it was your parents that raised me as much as they could."

"Remind me about it, will you," Zhane grumbled. "I swear, my mom worries about you more than the rest of us combined."

"That's only because she doesn't know how much trouble you get yourself into," Andros assured him wryly. "If she heard about the time that you... what happened to your face?" he demanded, catching a glimpse of Zhane's right cheek.

"Oh, that." The Silver Ranger touched the bruise with a sheepish smile. "I ran into Astronema."

"Exactly what I was talking about." Andros paused, his eyebrows drawing together as he frowned. "You ran into Astronema?"

"She wasn't there to attack," Zhane assured him. "It was more like... it wasn't even scouting. She was just wandering around, and then when she saw me..."

That didn't reassure him any, but he trusted Zhane's judgement. "If you're sure," he agreed reluctantly.

Zhane nodded. "We don't have to worry about her just yet. They've been quiet all day."

"Bad sign," Andros muttered, and saw his friend nod. "But I don't know what else we can do... If we attack now, we might survive. The longer we wait, the more people that can evacuate."

"Hey." Zhane caught his arm. "We need to save as many as we can. We made the right decision."

"Do you really believe that?" Andros asked quietly.

He turned to face Zhane completely, searching his expression for any trace of insincerity. He found none, and wondered why that wasn't at all reassuring.

"Yeah," Zhane answered. "I really do. You've done the best that you could do. We all have."

Andros only wished that were enough.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** They're still not mine.

**Chapter 3**

Ayla and Cahir returned with Roisin to the Rangerdome for three hours after dinner. They left just in time to be home before curfew kicked in, leaving behind an angry Zhane and a dejected Zoie. Andros watched the two of them moping around their rec room with a sigh, wondering why they didn't just go home as well. He really wished that they would.

"It's all right if you want to leave, you know," he told them quietly. "I don't mind."

Zoie readjusted her grip on the pillow she was hugging to her chest. "We're supposed to be here."

"You should be with your family," he retorted, though his voice was soft. "Tomorrow you might not have that chance."

"We're supposed to be here," Zoie repeated sharply. "Don't say that."

"Hey," Zhane said softly. He reached out to touch her arm gently, pulling her into a hug. To Andros, he added, "You really should stop thinking like that."

"I'm being realistic."

Zhane rolled his eyes. "Pessimistic."

He knew better than to try and convince either of them otherwise. Andros sighed and retreated to his bedroom, making sure that he locked the door behind him. He didn't bother with the lights, and just crawled into bed and curled up.

He should probably be in the gym, he knew, and everyone else should probably be there with him but he just didn't see the point. KO-35 wouldn't last, regardless of how many training sims they forced themselves through. It would be better to save their strength for when they'd need it.

Letting out a deep breath, Andros sat up and flicked on the lamp on his dresser. Rolling out of bed, he pulled open the top drawer and rummaged through it. It was easy to find what he was looking for once he'd pushed his socks and underwear out of the way, and he grabbed up both items as he fell back into bed.

The hologram projector he set to the side, balancing the album on his knees. Ayla and Cahir had made it for him when nothing had been salvageable from the wreck of his home, and they'd given him the discs for the projector with it. As he sat there staring at his long-dead family, Andros couldn't think of anything he'd ever been given that had meant more.

He turned the pages slowly, not sure what it was that he was looking for. His eyes hovered over one picture, and he paused. A small smile formed on his lips even as a lump grew in his throat. That would have been the first family picture that had been taken after Karone disappeared, Andros remembered, yet his parents were both smiling happily. He was the one who looked lost and lonely, his face half-hidden in his mother's neck.

He flipped through the photos until he found the one of his parents on their wedding day. They'd married young--Ilarion had been nineteen and Reia just a few days past twenty. Andros's smile was a little steadier this time as he stared hard at the picture. It hurt a little less to know that they'd had nearly twenty years together before they'd been killed.

He'd never asked Ayla if she knew why they'd waited ten years to have children. He knew that they had wanted several, but he supposed they just hadn't been ready. Andros closed his eyes with a sigh. He could still hear his mother laughing when he and Karone would ask why they didn't have any other siblings, telling them that the two of them were plenty. After he'd lost Karone, they must have reconsidered--his mother had been two weeks from her due date when she'd died.

He closed the album slowly and stowed it away in his drawer, along with the projector. Laying back on his bed, Andros shut his eyes and clasped his hands behind his head. He wondered sometimes if his parents would be proud of him, or if they'd wish that he'd never been chosen as a Power Ranger. His father, he knew, had hated even the idea of war. Oddly, he'd married a soldier.

Andros rolled over onto his stomach and buried his face into the pillow. There was one way to make his parents proud of him, and that was to find Karone. He _would_ find her, somehow. Assuming he didn't die tomorrow, of course...

Maybe Zhane was right. Andros bit his lip, wondering if he was really being too pessimistic. No, he decided. He _wanted_ to believe the way that Zhane and Zoie did. He just couldn't seem to manage it.

Andros sighed, glaring at his wrist in annoyance when his communicator beeped. "What is it?" he demanded.

"Team meeting in the rec room," Emi informed him curtly. "We need to talk."

He cut the connection from his end, frowning as he sat up and straightened his clothes. It was odd that they'd call him on their communicators; he would have expected them to just come find him. It made him wonder what they wanted to see him about.

He entered the room silently, his eyes flickering from one grim face to the next. "What's going on?"

"We've been thinking," Keelan began quietly. "And..."

Torin finished for him, his eyes trained on the floor. "We've decided that we should surrender."

* * *

He was just a little kid, really. Sometimes she thought that's all any of them were. Emi watched confusion and then outright fury flash across Andros's face, feeling more than just a twinge of guilt for her part in this. 

It was the Red Ranger that glared them all down, but just below the surface was the little boy who had lost his entire family in just a few short years. He'd grown from eight almost to adulthood practically overnight and he was much too responsible to begin with. Because of that she knew he would never stand for their decision.

"Never. We will _not_ surrender," he snapped at them.

Emi wasn't surprised when his eyes met hers. "We're trained soldiers," he reminded her coldly. "We can't defect because we've become discouraged."

She felt her face flush as he spat her words back to her, but she didn't look away. "No one said anything about defecting."

"Then what _are_ we doing?"

"Retreating," Torin supplied. "We're retreating."

"That's not the same as surrendering!" Andros shouted, his hands balled into fists at his side. "Which is it?"

"Retreating," Zoie spoke up quietly. "It's retreating. We evacuate as many as we can, and then we go with them. We keep protecting our people wherever they go."

Andros deflated a little, but his anger didn't abate much. "You made this decision without me. Why?"

"Because you're too damn noble sometimes," Zhane told him bluntly. "You never would have considered it."

"I swore that I would defend KO-35 and its people," Andros snapped back, clearly on the defensive now. "It's difficult to do that if we're running all over the galaxy hiding."

"But defending KO-35 and defending our people are two different things," Zoie reminded him gently. "Which is more important?"

Emi didn't know how she expected Andros to answer. She believed with all her heart that he would never put his people in any intentional danger--but this was his home, and he tended to be highly protective of it. She could hardly blame him for it; it was all he had left.

"Andros, we don't want to abandon KO-35 anymore than you do," she ventured softly. "But we have some hard choices to make."

"You've already made them," Andros said bitterly. "And I've made mine. This is my home and I'm not leaving it."

He turned on his heel and stormed from the room, his back and shoulders straight. Zhane waited all of three seconds before running after him, and Keelan heaved a sigh.

"That went well."

"You think?" Zoie bit her lip nervously. "We didn't handle that well. At all."

"There _was_ no good way to tell him that," Torin insisted. "Let's give him some time to cool off before we try to talk to him again."

"We don't have time." Zoie stood, pacing around in front of the couch. "We have maybe a few hours, and I don't want that to be the last thing I ever say to him."

Keelan started to speak. Emi saw him open his mouth and then close it, shaking his head. "Maybe you're right," he admitted. "But..."

"But you don't want to die here where it won't matter," Torin finished. "None of us do."

"No," Emi agreed softly. "But I don't think that he does either."

"But he will." Keelan shook his head, whether in exasperation or admiration she wasn't sure. "He really is too noble sometimes."

"Would you rather he went back on his word?" Torin shrugged to alleviate the sharpness of his voice. "I see where he's coming from. He said he'd defend KO-35 and that's what he'll do."

"No." Zoie shook her head slowly. "I think he's trying to prove something."

That certainly sounded like their Red Ranger, Emi admitted with a forced smile. "What this time?"

"That he's worthy," Zoie murmured softly. "It's always that, isn't it."

"For all of us," Torin agreed reluctantly, and Emi groaned.

"We've made a mistake, haven't we?"

* * *

"Hey." 

Andros did nothing to acknowledge Zhane's presence at his side. A hand touched his shoulder and he stepped away, tightening his hold on the balcony railing. Silently, he waited for Zhane to either speak or leave him in peace.

"We didn't say that because we don't trust you," Zhane said finally. "If that's what you're thinking, then you're even more of an idiot than I knew."

Almost against his will, Andros felt his lips twitch into a smile. "It's not."

"Good." Zhane sounded suspiciously smug as he moved closer, joining him as they stared out over Kanith. The city was eerily silent now, almost as if it was already empty.

"What?"

"You'd stay even if the rest of us didn't." Zhane said it as if he was totally sure of it, and he probably was.

Andros nodded his head slowly, tilting his head upwards until he had a better view of the stars. "I suppose I should order you all to stay."

"Probably." Zhane's voice was quiet, and Andros wondered what he was thinking. "But it wouldn't be a surrender if we didn't. We'd give our lives to win this fight. But..."

"You'd rather die in a battle that you had a chance of winning," Andros finished for him with a sigh.

"At least you know it's suicide." Zhane turned his head towards him, but Andros kept his eyes staring straight ahead. "Good. That makes it easier to talk you out of it."

"Zhane..."

"You'll never find her if you die, you know," Zhane said quietly. "You'll never know who took her, or where she is, or any of it."

"I know," he whispered. He clenched the railing hard enough that his fingers ached, but he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"You'd waste nine years of searching just for the sake of your pride?"

"It's not pride," Andros muttered. Zhane snorted quietly, and he frowned. "Well, it's not!"

"What is it, then?"

"I..." He could think of several reasons, some of them that Zhane might even believe. Andros closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping. "I don't want to leave."

"Okay." Zhane accepted that easily. "And that's enough of a reason to die?"

"I... no... yes... I don't know!" Andros shouted, the cold metal of the railing digging into his fingers. "I don't know, and no matter what I do people are going to die."

"That doesn't mean you have to be one of them."

"I..." But how could he save himself when he couldn't so many others? It wasn't right, not that it had been Karone taken, his parents killed, and now so many people dead when it should have been him!

"I know." Zhane touched his shoulder again, and this time Andros didn't flinch away. "It's not easy."

Andros didn't know if his mind was being read or if Zhane was only taking some lucky guesses, but he was too grateful for the comfort to question it. "What do I do?"

"If you won't leave, then I guess you stay," Zhane reasoned. "If you stay, you fight."

It sounded simple enough when put that way, and Andros nodded. "And you?"

Zhane was silent for a moment. "I'll do what you want me to," he said finally. "Whatever that is."

"I'm not... asking you to die for me." Andros finally sought out his friend's gaze, swallowing when Zhane met his eyes without hesitation. "If you believe that you can help more by leaving, then go."

"I believe..." Zhane stopped and to Andros's surprise, he laughed softly. "I believe that if anyone can get us out of this, it's you."

"It's too late for that now."

Everything he'd done, all the mistakes that he'd made, it all rushed to the front of his mind, and he bit down hard on his lip. There was just so much that he should have done differently, and he had no way to fix it now.

Zhane nodded slowly, expelling his breath in a slow sigh. "Then win or lose, live or die, we're in this together and you shouldn't have to die alone."

Zhane wouldn't let him look away this time, and Andros didn't know how to answer. His eyes burned as he struggled to keep them from flooding with tears. It was a wasted effort, and he felt his shoulders tremble.

"I don't want to die," he whispered, and tears spilled out of his eyes as he squeezed them shut. Andros didn't bother to wipe them away as Zhane wrapped both arms around his shoulders.

"Neither do I."

"But I don't know what else to do."

"I know."

"I--I--I'm scared," he confessed painfully, his fists clenching. He shouldn't be feeling this way; the Red Ranger should know what to do. But he didn't.

Zhane was silent for a moment. "Me too," he said softly, and Andros wondered if he was only imagining that he heard a tremor in his friend's voice.

A hand stroked his hair soothingly, and Andros felt someone else's arms slide around him as Zhane shifted to make room for her. The scent of Zoie's hair filled his nose, and it occured to him that only that morning it would have been enough to have him daydreaming for hours. Now, he just wrapped one arm around her and pulled Zhane closer with the other, not knowing what else to do but hold onto them.

"We're sorry," she whispered, and he tried to pull her closer. "We're not leaving you."

"We're Rangers," he heard Keelan say from behind him. "And we fight as a team."

"Forget what we said earlier," Emi added. "We were just... scared."

"I know," he choked out, swiping at his eyes as he tried to regain some semblance of composure. "I know. It's okay."

"It's not," Torin said quietly. "We never should have..."

He left the thought unfinished, and Andros nodded his head slowly. He understood what Torin had been trying to say, and he knew the fear that they felt all too well. The world he had grown up in was fading fast and it wouldn't be long before it was gone forever. Come morning, the fight would come, one that they would be lucky to emerge from alive and Andros was glad only that he would not face it alone.

* * *

**Author's Note: **Well, it ends here. This story ended up a bit pointless, actually; there were a few important little details that never quite made it in there, but I've been wanting to write a short little thing about KO-35 for awhile now, so oh well... The next installment won't be posted until I finish either of the two fics that I'm currently working on, STL being the one most likely to end first. At the rate I'm going, "Wanderer" should be up sometime this summer.

That's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this little short story, and any feedback you might have is hugely appreciated. Thanks for reading. :)


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